As a new wave of strikes start outside the National Gallery, the museum has been forced to close a substantial portion of its galleries. The protests also come as Gabriele Finaldi prepares to take over for Sir Nicholas Penny as museum president. (more…)
A Picasso painting valued at €25 million was seized from a superyacht belonging to former Santander bank VP Jaime BotÃn this week, after the work left Spain, reportedly en route to Switzerland. The work had been placed under export bar by the Spanish government, resulting in its seizure off the coast of Corsica. (more…)
At both Ruth Wittenberg Plaza and Hudson River Park, clusters of massive bagels have touched down, part of artist Hanna Liden’s new commission for the Art Production Fund. Amplifying her previous interests in the possibilities for discarded material and consumer objects as raw sculptural material, Liden turns the ringed breakfast staple into a sudden intrusion on the New York landscape. (more…)
Commissioned works by Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Teresita Fernandez and Susan Philipsz, among others, will go on view at the October 9th opening of Grace Farms, a 75-acre public space in New Canaan that also features a new multi-use building design by the SANAA architecture firm in collaboration with OLIN. “Collaborating with Grace Farms Foundation and SANAA on this project has been highly rewarding,” says Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and Grace Farms’ Consultant for Art Installations. “The concept of Grace Farms is unique. I believe it will serve as a great example of how art, architecture, nature and meaningful programs can all come together to inspire people.” (more…)
Chelsea Gallery Mixed Greens has announced that it will close at the end of the year, the second mid-size gallery in the neighborhood to announce its closure in the past weeks. “Together, we look back on our history and take great pride in the work we have done with hundreds of exceptional artists,”the gallery said in a statement. (more…)
The Real Deal profiles the New York real estate world’s most active and avid art collectors, including Aby Rosen and Edward Minskoff, among others, who have become major players in the current market, and who have continued to vie for top works in recent years. “Whatever the particular occupation may be, the collector becomes something of an addict,” says critic Judd Tully. (more…)
David Opdyke Exhibit A (2012), all photos via Josie Berman for Art Observed
This summer, Marianne Boesky Gallery’s uptown location has put forth a new group exhibition, organized by Aniko Berman, entitled Weird Science, a playful show that dwells on common threads that explore art as a discipline that attempts to logically reveal the possibility of unperceived worlds outside or within our own metaphysical landscape. Through process or content, the artists chosen attempt to expose the fantastic lurking behind everyday occurrences. (more…)
Poor working conditions and substandard pay persist at Abu Dhabi construction sites for the Louvre and Guggenheim, despite ongoing protests and investigations, the Art Newspaper reports. The news comes from a new report by Gulf Labor, noting few improvements in the past year. (more…)
Studio Museum head Thelma Golden has been appointed to the board of directors for the the Barack Obama Foundation in Chicago this week. “I am very much looking forward to joining the Board of Directors, and working to make the Obama Presidential Center a hub for creative expression through the arts,” Golden said in a statement. “The South Side of Chicago has historically been the nexus of several important cultural movements for African-Americans, and I believe the new Center will help usher in a new era of community engagement for this extraordinary neighborhood.” (more…)
An article in Bloomberg this week notes the increasingly difficult challenges of turning a profit for smaller and less commercially-focused galleries, despite a booming art market, and points to writer/art adviser Magnus Resch’s book Management of Art Galleries for potential solutions. “I could have just said, ‘The revenue numbers are terrible,’ but rather than being so negative I’m actually offering solutions,” Resch says. “It’s based on the analysis that I did.” (more…)
Artist Ai Weiwei has been granted his full 6-month visa by the UK Embassy, following an intervention by Home Secretary Theresa May. “She has reviewed the case and has now instructed Home Office officials to issue a full six-month visa,” an embassy official said. “We have written to Mr Ai apologizing for the inconvenience caused.” (more…)
The ArcelorMittal Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s sculpture at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, will soon have its own Carsten Höller slide, after Kapoor invited the German artist to collaborate. “I am thrilled that my tallest slide so far will cling onto Anish Kapoor’s The Orbit, taking an existing artwork as its site,” Höller says. “A slide is a sculptural work with a pragmatic aspect; a device for experiencing an emotional state that is a unique condition somewhere between delight and madness.” (more…)
The Financial Times notes the benefits of major corporations and financial institutions from collecting art, including benefits to the galleries and artists selling work. “The important thing is that companies run a collection professionally,” says Loa Haagen Pictet, who chairs the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art. “They manage it, show it, and have a proper database inventory and conduct activities directed at the public.” (more…)
Anicka Yi, 7,070,430K of Digital Spit (Installation View), via Kunsthalle Basel
Following up on her widely praised commission at The Kitchen earlier this year, Anicka Yi is presenting a new body of work on view at the Kunsthalle Basel, under the title 7,070,430K of Digital Spit. Continuing the artist’s interest in time-sensitive and formally unstable media, the exhibition includes a number of works in various states of destruction and decay, applied here to explore notions of forgetting and memory loss. (more…)
Ai Weiwei, Bench (2004), via Faurschou Foundation Copenhagen
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is currently presenting an exhibition of collected works that span the artist’s long career, encountering and documenting the artist’s countless conflicts, arrests and vocal critiques of the Chinese regime. As a social activist, the artist’s work reflects the history and challenges of China in the 21st Century, placed alongside his own reflection and perception of his home country. His work is intended to act as a form of intervention, and to encourage social change within the contemporary art sphere, while reflecting on China as the product of its vastly deep historical reserves. This practice, and its history against the backdrop of contemporary China is illustrated in detail at Farschou Foundation this year, as the institution presents Ai Weiwei: Ruptures. (more…)
Ellsworth Kelly is the subject of lengthy profile in The Guardian this week, as the artist releases the first volume of his catalog raisonné, and reflects on his lengthy career. Of particular note are his early experiences at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston’s Art School, which he found somewhat stifling towards modern and contemporary work. “One day in ’46 or ’47, I went down to see a secretary about something, down in the basement of the museum,” he recalls. “There was a painting behind her. I said, ‘Is that a Braque?’ And she said yes. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Why isn’t it upstairs?’ She said, ‘Well, they didn’t like it.’” (more…)
In addition to its Chelsea flagship and a satellite in Shanghai, James Cohan Gallery is opening its third location in the Lower East Side at the ground floor space of 291 Grand Street. “After being in business for 16 years, our roster of artist continues to grow and we want the opportunity for them to exhibit sooner than later”, explained Mr.Cohan. Works of Scottish artist, Katie Paterson, will be the first exhibition at the new location in February, followed by the Propeller Group in spring.
Wallspace, the Chelsea Gallery that launched the career of Walead Beshty and has shown artists including Mark Grotjahn, N. Dash and Jay Defeo, is closing on August 7th. “It has been our immense privilege to nourish a roster of artists who have inspired us, challenged us and enriched our lives in immeasurable ways,” the gallery said in a statement. “We are better people for knowing you and we thank you for working with us to make Wallspace the special place it has been.” (more…)
Thomas Hirschhorn, In-Between (2015), Photo by Mark Blower Courtesy of South London Gallery
Thomas Hirschhorn has returned to London for his first solo show in the British capital is some time, bringing a new, site-specific work that continues the artist’s interest in crisis, temporality and mediation as necessary components in the understanding and mitigation of trauma. Borrowing from the aesthetic languages of installation and sculpture, the artist maps a fictitious moment of violence across the South London Gallery, bringing with it a state of suspended aftermath. (more…)
Watermill Center Summer Benefit and Auction, via Art Observed
The 22nd Edition of the Watermill Center’s Annual Summer Benefit took place this past weekend, honoring long-time Watermill supporter and philanthropist Inga Maren Otto. This year, the gala’s theme was “Circus of Stillness… power over wild beasts”. Hosted by Robert Wilson, it brought together works of art and performance from some 25 countries, with over one thousand attendees. The evening raised a total of over $1.9 million dollars towards Watermill Center’s Artist Residency Program, International Summer Program, and other educational events for its artists.
The Seattle Art Fair, bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, opens today, with an impressive list of major blue-chip galleries in attendance. “I’ve been going to the Venice Biennale for at least a decade and always enjoy the stimulation of seeing the work of new and up-and-coming artists,” says Allen. “In 2013 I started thinking, ‘what’s keeping us from doing this in Seattle?’” (more…)
While Ai Weiwei’s passport has been returned to him, the artist has reportedly been limited in how long he can travel in Britain in the coming months. While he had planned a six-month stay, the British Embassy had reduced his stay to only 20 days, citing an unreported conviction in Chinese court. “The decision is a denial of Ai Weiwei’s rights as an ordinary citizen, and a stand to take the position of those who caused sufferings for human rights defenders,” the artist said in a statement on his Instagram. (more…)
In an unexpected turn, Art News and Art in America have announced a merger that sees Peter Brant taking controlling interest in the pair of companies. “The idea is to make artnews.com the single domain for the company when it comes to any digital editorial content — news coverage or information,” says ArtNews CEO Izabela Depczyk. “That means content from Art in America will be housed on the website as well… all the archival content [from all magazines], back issues, subscriptions, anything and everything will be housed on artnews.com.” (more…)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has recorded at least 6.3 million visitors in the past year, the most in the 40 it has been recording attendance statistics. The figures are attributed to the museum’s new seven day operating hours and a number of popular exhibitions. (more…)